Winx Club: Illumix
by ellieq
Summary: My season 5. (Previously called A New Darkness Rises). After defeating Darkar, Valtor, the Ancestral Witches, and bringing magic back to Earth, the Winx face a new threat just as they begin thinking about the next stage of their lives. Yes, they have prevailed against many enemies in the past, but this time, they will be going up against darkness itself.
1. Episode 1: Graduation Monster

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: this is my take on expanding the Winx Club story after the events of season 4 (diverging from the cannon timeline). Trying for a season-long arc, consistent with the tone of cannon seasons 1-3. Reviews welcome and appreciated!_

 _No copyright infringement intended._

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 _Magical, action-y music as we zoom in on the girls zooming through the magical forest._

"Woohoo!" the Winx let out hollers of excitement as they swooped over the magical forest in their life-size paper airplanes, tugging the flaps left and right as they ducked and bobbed about the pine tree branches framing the road to Red Fountain.

Today was a special day, and all the girls were excited, because today was none other than the day of the Specialists' graduation. Of course, as the girlfriends of graduating specialists, the Winx had already secured their spots on the guest list, but as an added surprise, Red Fountain's Headmaster Saladin had sent specially spelled human-sized paper airplanes to pick up all attending students from Alfea on the day of the ceremony. Luckily for the Winx, they had gotten two crafts all to themselves and were now leading the pack of fairies on their way to Red Fountain.

"This is the best!" Musa shouted back to her friends, craning her neck so she could be heard above the wind. She was piloting the leading plane with Techna and Flora onboard and was quite frankly having the time of her life.

"Well, I'll say Saladin sure knows how to treat his guests with style," Techna agreed from behind her, tightly clutching her gadgets in one hand while she used the other to hold on.

"And what nice friends to guide us along the way," giggled Flora as she held out her hands to the paper doves that were flying alongside them.

They bobbed over another tree branch. From the plane beside them, Bloom and Stella waved at their fellow fairies. "Yoohoo!" called Stella. "You girls ready to par—gah!" She was cut off abruptly as an errant gust of wind whipped a chunk of her (formerly) perfectly groomed long blonde hair into her face.

Before the girls on the other plane got to finish hearing what she had to say, they pulled ahead as the clearing before Red Fountain came into sight.

"Hold on tight!" Musa called to her passengers as she went in for the landing.

Whoosh. She steered them in for a smooth descent, and they touched down without incident on the soft grass. Around them, the other Alfea fairies were landing their planes, too, and up the road near the gates, they could see guests arriving from other realms in various modes of transport.

With one mighty leap each, Musa, Techna, and Flora vaulted themselves over the edge of their magical craft, landing with soft thuds on the grass below. No sooner had they dismounted did the wings on their magical craft begin to shudder. Following the magic instructions with which Saladin had spelled them, the formerly platform-sized vehicle promptly folded itself up into a wedge no larger than a paper football!

"Neat!" exclaimed Techna, as she reached down to pick up the piece of magical handiwork.

"Well, yes points for style, but it loses points for what it did to my hair!" harrumphed Stella, as she and Bloom finally pulled up beside them.

"What? It's naturally windswept," Bloom joked, as they climbed down to join the other girls in the grass.

"Well, luckily, my magic's got it covered," Stella replied smugly, waving her hand to restore her hair back to normal. "Ah, look, good as new." The other girls giggled as they began walking towards Red Fountain together.

"Oh yes, what's magic when you can't use it to fix a bad hair day," teased Musa.

"Well, speaking of fixing, I believe we have a _graduation_ to attend. Can't go in looking like we just walked off the streets now, can we," Stella declared, as they stopped outside the gates. She snapped her fingers again. With a glow of sparkling light, the Winx's outfits instantly became party-ready.

"Wow!" "Fabulous!" "Thanks, Stella!" The Winx chimed their thanks.

"Well, it's what I do!" Stella smiled proudly.

"Now, if only Layla were here to join us," Flora murmured softly, falling behind the group as she wistfully thought of their absent friend. For a moment, they all went quiet, lingering on the sad thought that the sixth member of their group wouldn't be joining them for the celebration.

Naturally, Stella was the first one to chipper back up, determined to regain the party spirit. "Well, then, we'll just have to party extra for her," she declared. Looping her arms through those of Flora and Bloom, the two of her friends that were standing the closest to her, she strutted forward purposefully.

"Now come on! Let's go find our seats and see our boys!"

…

 _Meanwhile, inside the Earth fairies' palace…_

Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop. Those were the only sounds that could be heard as Nebula, High Queen of the Earth fairies, walked down the long, barren corridor underneath her palace in Tir Nan Og. Unlike the higher levels of the castle, which were always bustling with the activity of her subjects -from warrior fairies making their rounds to messengers hailing from the realms of the other Major Earth Fairies hoping for an audience, the underground levels rarely saw visitors at all, and seemed to maintain an air of if-not-eerie-at-least-unusual silence at all times.

This hallway, in particular, crossed Nebula's mind as perhaps the least-visited corridor in all the corridors of the castle, fittingly named The Last Hallway. There was only one reason anyone, fairy, wizard, or magical being, came here, and that was the reason she was there today.

Finally reaching the end of the hall, she stopped and turned to the figure beside her, who was so completely enveloped in her navy blue cloak that from the back it looked as if the night-blue swath of fabric had been gliding itself alongside the Fairy Queen.

Nebula reached her hand out and set it gently on her guest's shoulder. "You're sure you want to do this?" she asked again, one last time. Unsurprisingly, she received a resolute nod from beneath the hood.

"All right, then," Nebula nodded back. "I will be waiting for you at the other end of the hall."

And just like that, she left Princess Layla of Andros to enter the Garden of Asphodel all by herself.

…

 _Lots of chattering, hustle, and bustle can be heard around the girls as they maneuver their way around Red Fountain's stadium._

"Wow, what a turnout!" exclaimed Bloom, as the Winx shuffled to their row of seats. Her eyes panned over the expansive but already nearly packed stadium as she waited for the people in front of her to move forward. Surveying the crowd, she noted that there were people of all shapes, sizes, and modes of dresses already milling about in the stands, and more that just kept coming in a near-constant stream through the entrances.

"Yeah, it seems like there's someone from every corner of the magical dimension here," agreed Musa when they finally got to their seats.

"And not just someone," interjected Stella, leaning over to join the conversation. " _Royal_ someones." Snapping into VIP-spotting mode, she scoured the crowd for persons of interest and began diligently pointing them out to her friends.

"Look, there's the archduke of Dolona, and that's the High priestess of Espero, and there's…" she petered off, distracted by a sight that caught her eye for a moment.

Seeing that her royal-spotting friend seemed preoccupied, Bloom waited a moment before changing the subject. "Well I can't believe the boys are finally graduating!" she said, still trying to get over the shock that she had been feeling all day.

"Tell me about it!" agreed Musa.

"It seems like just yesterday that we were tracking down trolls through the Black Mud Swamp together," Flora reminisced fondly.

"And evading the Trix in the magic-free wildlands," added Musa.

"And there was that time they helped us learn to ride wind-riders so we could pretend to be a biker gang—" Techna began, but Stella cut her off, rejoining the conversation.

"Oh come on, guys, stop talking about our lives as if we've already lived through our heydays!" she chided. "Yes, yes, those were all good times, but we have a whole wide future to think about! Think of all the _endless_ possibilities there will be once our boys are finally free to be by our sides!" She splayed her hands out for emphasis.

Then, to further make her point, she gestured at Flora, "Take Flora for example, she and Helia are doing it right, travelling around the dimension after graduation, just the two of them!"

Flora blushed at the attention.

"And as for—"

Doo doo-doo doo! Luckily, the trumpets sounded before Stella could start her full-on commentary on any of her other friends' love lives, calling the stadium to attention.

Along with the rest of the attendees, the Winx girls hushed their conversation and turned to look at the center of the arena. Up until this point, the entire area had been covered by a large purple curtain-like cloth, mysteriously concealing all that was behind it, but now as the spotlight honed in on it, it whisked itself off to reveal Red Fountain's head teacher Codatorta and Headmaster Saladin standing atop a large, circular stage that temporarily stood in the place of Red Fountain's typical dirt dueling pit. They were immediately greeted with a deafening roar of applause.

"Now, now, please," Codatorta made a motion with his hands when the clapping had somewhat subsided. "Please save your real applause for our wonderful graduates!" This, of course, was met by even more deafening applause, which he graciously waited out once more so that the ceremony could continue.

Finally, he began, gesturing to Headmaster Saladin to take the floor, which, stepping forward, he did.

"As you know, our boys have trained tirelessly, under the most rigorous program for specialists in the entire magical dimension," he began.

"Every single Specialist graduating today has seen combat, be it the Battle for Magix or the race for the Codex," the Alfea fairies nodded in solidarity at this, remembering their recent ordeals.

"…or one of countless other missions which may have gone unsung but whose impact is seen in the safety and harmony we enjoy today," he continued.

"But every single one of them has come out the stronger for it. Now, after five long years at this institution, they are ready to graduate to their next stage in life, where I know they will carry the values of Red Fountain with them –honor, duty, and a dedication to protecting the Magic Dimension.

"No matter where they go from today, as future leaders, knights, and warriors," –the royal families could be seen puffing their chests out at this— "I know that these young men will do great things."

He stepped back, bowing his head to the applause that once again erupted his way.

"And now for our graduates…" Cordatorta began, just as the school shook with the crushing force of an earthquake.

…

 _Silence. Stillness. Opens up on Layla in the Garden of Asphodel._

Layla held her breath as she walked along the tiled garden pathway. With every step she took towards the raised circular platform in the corner of the garden, the pounding in her chest seemed to only grow louder, and she had to will her footsteps to stay on course.

Every once in a while, the occasional flower of asphodel would brush against the hem of her cloak, having overgrown its area of grass and begun to droop onto the path, but for the most part, she remained undisturbed as she carried along her way.

Finally reaching the large concrete podium that marked her destination, she began to climb, mounting the square-cut stairs carved into the side of the stricture. Using every ounce of her former princess training, she had managed to maintain a calm façade, both before the concerned and pitying eyes of her friends and classmates before she had left and in front of her former comrade-in-arms the fairy queen all the way up until their parting at the door. Now, however, Layla could feel her arms shaking beneath her long cloak, and she clutched tightly to the inside of the fabric to steady herself.

Pulling her hood off of her head, she let her long brown curls spill out just as she reached the final landing of the structure. Inadvertently, her breath hitched in her throat as she took in, for the first time, what was before her.

Within a ring of concrete stood a circular plot of soil just large enough for the single flower of asphodel planted at its center. Like the others, it was eerily still, as if it were preserved in a magical suspension that mirrored that of its owner. Although she had known and been expecting to see this sight, all of the mental preparation in the world wouldn't have been enough for her to prepare her for her own reaction.

"Nabu…" she choked out, before falling to her knees.

With a single word, it was as if the strength had been drained right out of her. Silently, with her arms flung over the concrete edge of her former fiancé's honorary gravestone, she began to sob.

…

Boom! The stands exploded as the monster catapulted itself over the edge of the school. From the moment it started climbing the already levitated foundations of Red Fountain, the stadium had descended into chaos. As entire magical families left and right hurried to teleport themselves out of there, the rest of the masses had begun to flee, taking their chances with the Red Fountain elevator that headed in the very direction the monster had come from.

All around her, Bloom watched as people swarm for self-preservation, running, shoving, and more than one disgruntled royal entourage resorting to aggressive elbow-jabbing in their quest to usher their royal heirs off the premises as quickly as possible.

"Girls, we just need to stay calm!" she called to her friends, as they tried to keep each other in sight amidst all the commotion.

Already, on the other side of the stands, the specialists were doing damage control, attempting to usher as many guests safely and efficiently out through the exits as possible, while Headmaster Saladin chanted reinforcement spells to hold the already splitting and unstable building intact.

A few magic users who had stayed behind were blasting spells at the monster, trying to slow it down as it made its way down the bleachers, crushing the stands in its path.

"We're going to have to transform!" yelled Stella, already entering her transformation. Without saying, the other girls followed suit.

"Enchantix!"

 _Enchantix transformation song._

Having transformed, the girls now hovered in the air above the monster, gaining a new vantage point on the action going on below.

"Ordinary spells don't seem to be working on it!" Musa yelled, as they watched the monster advance after only very briefly stopping to swat at a spell cast by a young Andros wizard.

"We'll have to try a convergence," Techna agreed, glancing worriedly over at the exits through which the specialists were still busy herding frazzled attendees. "And we'll have to _not_ wreck the building while we're doing it."

"Ok, girls," Bloom said, honing her concentration as they formed a circle above the monster.

"Enchantix convergence!"

Boom! Their spell exploded and went hurtling towards the monster, which turned to watch as it came towards it with his red, reptilian eyes. His pupils widened just a fraction before it hit…

But as the light from the explosion cleared, the monster's head reemerged from its large, armor-like turtle's shell. Eyes squinting with more than distaste and annoyance this time, it turned towards the Winx girls, who were hovering with a look of oft-expressed surprise on their faces. If Bloom were to read monsters' facial expressions, she would understand this one to be a vow of a personal vendetta begun. She stiffened, still in shock that it had managed to survive their blast.

"That was our most powerful spell…" Stella said from behind her, sucking in her breath as the silent stand off went on between monster and fairies.

For a moment, all stood still.

"We need to recalibrate our next move," Techna said through her teeth.

But then, suddenly, the monster turned away, pushing over the columns of the stage as he went. With a mighty leap, he bounded right off the edge of Red Fountain and began to walk away.

…

 _Back at the Garden of Asphodel…_

Layla wiped her tears away. Her cloak had come undone when she had fallen into her broken mess, and she now straightened it and refastened its clasp as she prepared to stand.

"Nabu, I," she had tried to start many times before, but she could never quite get the words out, even completely alone amidst the field of unmoving flowers. _It was this day, one year ago that you proposed to me_ , she wanted to say. _Do you remember that?_ Layla pulled her cloak on tighter. There were so many conversations that she would have with Nabu in her head, each one the perfect way to find closure, reminisce, and _accept his death_. She shrunk into herself at that.

Be strong, stay fearless, stop feeling sorrow, she thought to herself. _Nabu wouldn't have wanted that_. But just once, once, she wanted to allow herself to feel what she wanted to feel.

Finally, the words came out.

"Goodbye, Nabu," she said. "You were my first love, and I will always remember you." Then, with one last look at the flower that preserve his spirit for eternity, Layla pulled on her hood, descended the steps, and began her trek back to the outside world of Tir Nan Og.

…

The Winx blinked as the dust cleared. Even they had had to look away for a moment as the fumes of dirt and chunks of marble flew into the air.

When they finally landed on the ground, the tank-proportioned monster was already lumbering away into the distance, moving upright as its armor-like shell glinted sturdily on its back.

"What was that thing?" Stella took a moment to wonder, before remembering that her specialist-sized boyfriend had been standing near the foot of the column as it was falling.

"Brandon!" she called out, as she ran towards the exit. Through the debris and remaining dust clouds, he emerged.

"Oh Brandon, thank goodness!" she cried, leaping into his arms.

"Bloom? Bloom, are you all right?" Sky called out to his fiancée. "Yes, Sky, I'm right over here," Bloom, too, ran over to her man.

"Musa—" Musa turned to Riven, whose spiky updo emerged from behind the exit doors.

"Techna!" Techna turned to Timmy.

"Helia?" Flora waited for her specialist to step forward, before catching a movement near the base of the pillar. Running over, her heart nearly caught in her throat, but when she got closer she saw that he had escaped unscathed.

"Oh Helia, are you all right?" she called to him, as she helped him tug his light blue cape free from beneath the rubble. He nodded as she helped him stand up, her strong and silent warrior as always.

Codatorta looked on as the fairies and specialists hugged each other, eventually moving on from their significant others to reunite as a group.

He turned to the exhausted Headmaster beside him. "What was that thing?" he asked, reiterating Stella's question.

Saladin gazed gravely into the distance. "I do not know," he said.

…

On a planet far or not-so-far from here, two guards stood sentry at the mouth of a cave. Down many, many levels, behind magical ivory bars spelled with many layers of enchantments, an essence from within a pitch-black pit stirred. The gates holding the clearly magical presence behind it shook. And finally, seeping through a crack between the bars, a fragment seeped out the same size and shape as a wisp of smoke. Congealing on the ground outside the gates, the wisp formed into a young female figure. Pushing herself off the ground, she smiled.


	2. Episode 2a: Escape from The Pit

_Enjoy! Please let me know what you think! xx_

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 _Callisto Theme. Somber-drums heavy as a shot of the cloudy sky pans down to the mouth of a cave._

Outside the mouth of a cave-like prison, two guards in blue-grey uniform stood sentry under a cloudy, sunless sky. Although there was no sun to be seen, sweat had begun to form on both of their brows, though neither made a move to wipe it away.

As a faint hissing came from within the cave, the younger of the two, fresh-faced and doe-eyed, turned to his companion in nervous inquiry, but his stone-faced elder replied before he even asked his question.

"No, no need to report anything, happens all the time," the older guard said, keeping his gaze straight-ahead. "It always acts up every ten years or so."

The younger guard nodded and returned to his position, even as he surreptitiously threw nervous glances behind him as the hissing grew louder and louder. Suddenly, the dark grey clouds above them parted to show a dark red moon in the sky.

The younger guard started, and even the older guard seemed caught by surprise.

"Does that happen all the time, too?" the younger guard clutched his weapon.

"No, but—" the older guard was cut off as a squadron of their comrades came running down the path towards them.

"There's been a breach!" the front-most guard yelled at them as he came nearer.

The older guard barely had time to recover from his shock when his comrade reached him. "But, how? And which cell?" he asked, his words falling over themselves in stutters and exclamations.

His comrade looked at him gravely, putting his hand on his shoulder as the rest of the men fell in line behind him. "It comes from the pit," he said, drawing his weapon.

…

 _Ivory bars block the entrance of a hollow, seemingly bottomless pit. Loud hissing can be heard from within, as an unseen force in the pure darkness strains against the bars._ _Finally, a dark wisp slips through the unseen enchantments and congeals into the figure of a woman._

Plop! Echidna found herself thrown face forward onto the cold, stone floor. After all these years spent behind those horrible, ivory bars, she had almost forgotten that the sensation of touch existed in the real world. Pausing where she was, she took a moment just to relish in the sensation of stinging cold that pushed up against her cheek. She shuddered to think that if she hadn't gotten out just now, she might never have been able to experience it at all. She refused to think about it. None of that mattered now. All that mattered was that she had finally, _finally_ broken free and she planned to make the best of it.

Unceremoniously, she made to push herself off the ground. Still weak from her newfound freedom, her elbows shook beneath her. When she finally managed to stand up, she took stock of her surroundings. Brushing herself off, she tried to conjure up some magic, but the faint black wisps emanating from her palms disappeared almost as soon they had been created, like ghosts of an abandoned bonfire. "Curses!" she hissed out loud. Although the archaic stone walls around her looked unassuming, it was clear that they were still able to repel her magic, at least in her weakened state.

Leaning against the nearest wall, she made to rest so she could regain her strength. But just as she was about to sit down and sink into the comfort of the shadows, a faint rumbling came from above her, shaking loose dust and sediment from the ceiling and narrowly pegging her in the cheek with a stray pebble. Her expression hardened. So the castle Callisto guards had realized she'd broken free after all. She had no choice; she would have to fight.

…

 _Alfea theme music as we pan over Alfea's courtyard and zoom in on the Winx's room._

"Ah, the fresh start to another school year!" exclaimed Stella, as she and the rest of the Winx peered into the courtyard from their teacher's window. As usual, Stella was trying to lighten the mood, but even she couldn't seem to distract the Winx from their worried thoughts of the past week's events.

"I sure hope the boys are okay," said Musa, saying what they were all thinking out loud. She fingered the keys of her saxophone, absent-mindedly composing a tune to distract herself.

"Yeah," nodded Bloom as she pet Kiko, whose ears drooped at the worried tone in her voice. He jumped down and bounded over to Flora, who fed him a rabbit treat.

"It sure was unexpected of the monster to have just showed up like that."

"Not to mention the fact that it walked away without capturing a target of any sort and has now disappeared without a trace," added Techna.

"So you still haven't heard anything from your techno-magical tracking device, huh?" asked Musa as she walked over to where her longtime roommate was consulting her devices.

"Not yet," replied Techna, shaking her head. "But through this high-powered tracking system, which I have enhanced with my Enchantix power and connected to portals all throughout the magical realms, we're bound to find him eventually."

The other girls nodded, taking comfort in the fact that known technology expert and their best friend Techna was on the case.

"At least we'll get to see Layla tonight-" Flora began.

Just then, a knock sounded on their door, followed by Headmistress Faragonda's gentle voice. "Are you girls ready to head down?" she called.

"We'll be right there!" called Stella as they all stood up to go.

"Well, even though we don't know where he is now, I have the feeling that this won't be the last we see of that monster," said Bloom grimly.

And with that, they went downstairs to open the school year.

…

 _Back in the Callisto prisons…_

Echidna held her ground as the first guard came at her. Like a raging bull, he ran spear-first, yelling a battle cry as he charged. Echidna ducked as his spear came just inches from her face, stabbing at the air where her head had been just moments before. With a well-rounded box kick, she knocked it from his hands and with a rough shove, sent him flying to the side.

As the second guard set upon her, she ducked low into position, tripping him at the ankles before he got a chance to fire from the bulb of his spear. With a well-placed flying kick, she sent the next guard tumbling to the ground.

Intermittently, she fired her spear towards the mouth of the chamber, creating a wall of magic flame that slowed the advance of the rest of the squadron. But as the guards raised up their magic-proof shields, she knew it wouldn't last forever.

"C'mon, c'mon," she muttered to herself, trying her hardest to activate the magic in her palms. So far, she had relied solely on physical combat and the magic that was quickly running out in the disarmed guard's spear, saving up all her magical energy for a spell to transport herself out of there. If the guards managed to break through the wall before she was ready, however, she might be forced to use some of her magic on an offensive attack instead. She looked to her palms again, sweat beading on her forehead. If she could just hold them off a little bit longer…

Too late, she saw the grey-blue boots of the uniformed guards stepping through the flames. The magic spear in her hands spouted useless puffs of smoke, having used up all of its magic. She hissed as she tossed it to the side.

With a sudden swoop of her arm, darkness erupted from her hand, creating a temporary wall of darkness between her and the guards. For a moment, they were thrown into chaos, shouting for each other. But although they couldn't see her, she knew they were just mere yards away, ready to take away her newfound freedom and cast her back into imprisonment.

She clenched her jaw. She would have to attempt her teleportation spell right now, fully charged or not. Pressing her palms into the hard sediment, she whispered the incantation. She closed her eyes, feeling the familiar surge of black magic rush through her veins and seep out through her fingertips. It got stronger, stronger, until finally she felt the wall dissolve beneath her touch.

With a sigh of relief, she leapt into the swirling portal with just one last glance at the solid ivory bars behind her.

"I will come back for you," she vowed. "…Mother."


	3. Episode 2b: Escape from The Pit part 2

_Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I finally got time to update! Please let me know what you think! xx_

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 _Deflated Red Fountain theme as we zoom in on the Specialists among the debris of the arena._

Ugh! Brandon grunted as he and a junior Specialist worked together to heave a broken slab of marble out of the way. All around the wreckage-filled stadium formerly known as Red Fountain's training arena, other specialists were doing the same.

"Hey buddy, a little help here?" Sky called out as he and junior-specialist Jaime finished pushing their slab into the corner. Wiping his brow, Brandon strode over to his friend, and together, they began pushing the slab of splintered concrete.

"It sure doesn't— feel like— we've graduated, huh?" Brandon remarked between successive efforts to heave the slab forwards.

"You— read— my mind," Sky grunted, turning to lean up against the rock with her shoulder. "This is— practically— Codatorta's— first-year— training class— all over again."

Finally, they reached the wall and stopped to catch their breath. Riven, who had just come up to the stadium after going on a perimeter inspection with Timmy, came over to join them.

"Hey, Riven. How's it looking out there?" Sky asked him, raising his head to greet him.

Riven shook his head. "Not good," he answered gravely. "You see that?" He pointed to the crack in the floor that started at their feet and continued to the halfway point of the stadium floor. "There are rifts like that everywhere, along the outside, along the inside, it's such a structural hazard that Timmy says it's a miracle that we're even able to be in the building at all."

"Structural hazard, huh?" Brandon repeated back to him, scratching his head.

"That is to say, if Saladin hadn't put his enchantments in place in time, this whole place would have fallen apart," explained Timmy as he came over to join them.

"Oh, man. How long do you think repairs will take?" Brandon asked his genius friend.

"Well, at the rate that it's going so far, and with the level of magical enchantments needed to heal the physical structure from within the foundation… restoring Red Fountain to its full physical integrity would take…" Timmy whipped out his advanced computer-calculator, a device he always kept on hand, and began typing in the numbers. After reading the results, he gave a start. "Over four years!" he reported in shock.

The other specialists were visibly stunned as well.

"What? Four years?" Riven was the first one to vocalize. "Are you sure there isn't something wrong with your algorithms or something?"

Timmy shook his head as he looked over his numbers again.

Whew. Brandon let out a low whistle. "Four years sure is a long time to spend in this place," he said.

They all nodded glumly at this prospect.

Just then, a cry went up from the other end of the arena. All four specialists snapped to attention and rushed over to where their other classmates had already gathered.

"What is it? What's happened?" yelled Sky, the first one to reach the scene. Pushing through the crowd of junior specialists who made way for their post-grad superiors, he finally reached the figure that had collapsed on the ground and let out a sharp gasp.

"Helia!"

…

 _Meanwhile, in a dank prison cell in the dungeons of Domino…_

Icy lounged on her hard prison chair as if it were an ice throne, swinging her legs over one of the armrests, while her arms and back draped over the other.

To her right, her older (but only by two minutes) sister Darcy had laid claim to the prison cot bed and was mindlessly inspecting her nails for the hundredth time, as if the hypnotic purple polish would be enough to teleport her away from this horrible place.

"I'm so bored, ugh!" their younger sister Stormy groaned from her position on the floor. She had become so bored, it seemed, that she had abandoned the furniture altogether, opting instead to prop her legs up against the mortar wall with her wild curly hair and magenta-covered back flat against the cold, hard ground.

Lazily, Icy glanced down through her eyelids at her younger sister, who had begun tugging out strands of her own hair and in an attempt to spark fire to them with her storm-based powers.

"Chill it, Stormy," Icy said, unfeelingly. "You know your lightning powers don't work in here."

"Yeah, well at least I'm trying to do something," Stormy shot back. "Ugh! I just want to get out of here and destroy something!" she pounded the ground in frustration.

At her little sister's whining, Icy's hand tightened into a fist. "Don't you think I know that," she finally snapped, slamming her fist down against the hard wood grained armrest of her chair. "And I'm trying to figure out how. Ugh! These stupid anti-magic charms. There're so dark even I'm having trouble undoing them. But eventually…" she rubbed her temples, forcing herself to return to her nonchalant concentration.

Stormy looked to her sister Darcy.

"Hey, don't look at me, you couldn't even get a spark to form from your finger," Darcy deflected.

"Well, could we get someone really bad and evil to break us out, then?" Stormy asked, twirling a strand of her storm grey hair between her fingertips. Every bit as fidgety in body as she was in spirit, she began restlessly twitching her leg, too.

To this, Icy clenched her jaw vehemently but kept her tone sickly sweet. "Now, Stormy, dear sister, I thought we all agreed that we weren't going to do team-ups anymore."

"Yeah, every time we have a team-up we always end up on the losing side," Darcy reminded her, scrunching her nose up at the thought of their ill-fated previous team-ups.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," Stormy waved their sharp tones off. "No more Lord Darkars or Valtors or ancienct ancestral witches."

"It's just that, it's… been a while you know," she said with concern, citing the entire year that they had spent in these prisons without so much as a sight of escape. "Don't you think we should have planned our escape by now?"

Just then, a funnel of wind appeared in the center of the Trix's cell. Stormy sat up to attention as wind whipped around the cell, pleased but surprised at this new development. Despite her sisters' nonchalant demeanors, she could see that they were, too.

When the whirlwind stopped, a dark figure stepped forward to reveal itself. From her vantage point on the ground, Stormy traced her way up svelte leather-clad legs, over the tops of which flowed a green high-low dress so dark it may as well have been black.

The newcomer's boots, too, seemed just the teeniest bit off black, veering on purple. In fact, the only pops of color Stormy could identify in this woman's outfit at all were the emerald green crystals that glimmered from her nails and the slightly lighter variation of a moss green that colored her lips. Naturally, her hair was a pure, jet black.

Still not used to the unexpected newcomer's presence in their cell, Stormy instinctively drew back as the young woman licked her reptilian, moss-green lips and spoke.

"Hello, ladies," she said.

…

 _Meanwhile, back at Alfea…The Winx convene in Stella's room as the sky outside their window turns to a palette of sunset colors._

Oomph! Musa landed on the bed with a sigh, letting it absorb all her weight as she stared at the ceiling. After a long day of orientations and opening ceremonies, she was exhausted, and glad to finally be in her room with her friends, where they could finish, or rather, begin, unpacking. That is, of course, after they had all convened in Stella's room for a satisfactory amount of time.

"…And then, just as everything was going well, that hideous _beast_ came thundering in, destroying everything in its path," Stella said, busy relaying to Layla all the events she had missed during the previous day's hectic graduation ceremony.

"Even our strongest convergence spell didn't work against it," added Techna from the corner where she and Bloom were playing with Kiko.

Flora nodded as she came over to offer everyone tea.

"Wow," said Layla, gladly accepting a cup.

"Yes, we thought that we were done for, right then and there," Stella narrated dramatically, throwing her hand against her head for emphasis.

"But then the strangest thing happened…It turned and ran away." Even Stella couldn't help her bewilderment from showing on her face. "Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, nobody knows why, but one minute it was busy trying to break Red Fountain apart and then the next, it leapt down and just walked away from the fight." said Bloom, chiming in.

"Wow, sure sounds like a lot happened while I was gone," Layla said again, though her heart wasn't fully in it. Stifling a yawn, she got up. "I think I'm going to head to bed," she said, making to leave.

"Thanks for the tea, Flora."

"Huh?" Baffled, Stella called out from behind her, "but it's only 6:30!"

…

As Layla walked down the corridor, having bypassed her own room to go outside for some air, she heard a pair of panting footsteps run up behind her. Turning, she saw that it was Flora, and she let her concerned friend join her as they leaned against the pillars looking out into Alfea's main courtyard.

None of them spoke, choosing instead to stand in silence as they stared into the mélange of fruity colors that made up the evening sky.

"It's beautiful," Flora finally murmured, unable to contain herself. Layla nodded beside her.

"It's the same color as Nabu's flower," she said wistfully, pointing to a patch of pink sky. "I saw him, you know," she said suddenly, turning to her friend. "I saw his, his spirit. And there isn't a single day where I don't wish it had never happened."

Fresh tears of frustration threatened to spill over the rims of her eyes. "I wish it hadn't been him," she clenched her fist passionately, but almost instantly she deflated again, falling into Flora's arms. "Oh, Flora!"

Flora, who had been listening empathetically the whole time, stroked her friend's hair as she held her in her arms. "There, there," she said gently. "He'll always be with you."

"Girls!" Just then, Techna came running across the courtyard towards them. Flora and Layla started from where they were, turning to the sound of urgency in Techna's voice.

"What is it, Techna?" asked Layla, wiping the sniffles from her eyes.

Flora turned to Layla, ready to comfort her friend at the development of any more troubling news. But when Techna delivered her message, it wasn't aimed at the grieving princess of Andros.

"Flora, we have to get to Red Fountain quick!" said Techna, panting to catch her breath. "It's Helia."

…

 _Back in the Trix's dingy dungeon cell…_

"So, how would you fine ladies like to get out of here?" Echidna asked the Trix as she curled her licorice-colored lips in a deliciously evil smile.

Still recovering from their initial shock at her appearance, the Trix didn't respond at first, but Icy was quickly the first one to recover her composure. Returning to her nonchalant position in her chair-turned-faux-ice-throne, she eyed their guest suspiciously, giving her a once-over from the corner of her eye.

"I'm sorry, but we don't do team-ups anymore," she said frostily, leaning back further in her chair to show that she would not budge.

"Not even at the price of freedom?" their visitor asked, bemused.

Icy glared at her, wishing that she still had her ice powers so she could freeze the smug look right off of the other woman's face. Unfortunately, she didn't, and inwardly, she had to admit that she had a point.

"And what would be in it for you?" she asked sharply, refusing to give in.

"Besides the satisfaction of helping some fellow mistresses of the dark arts once again see the light of day?" their guest replied smoothly, her smirk never leaving her face.

"Yes, besides that," responded Icy, narrowing her eyes.

Their guest curled her lips up again. "Well for me, it's …a family matter," she said enigmatically. "Let's just say I help you escape this drag of a place, and you help me unleash darkness and destruction upon the magical universe?" she dangled her offer before the three witches.

"Did you say destruction?" asked Stormy, instantly perking up.

"And darkness…" mused Darcy, clearly intrigued.

"And what ultimate power will we need to get in order to do that?" asked Icy, even more suspicious than before as she saw her sisters being enticed by the promises from the enchantress before her.

To that end, Echidna smiled again. "Darkness is all the power we'll need," she responded. Snapping her fingers, she opened a portal at the door of the Trix's chamber and gestured with her hand.

"Shall we?" she asked.

Stormy grinned. Darcy laughed. The maniacal hunger for chaos and mischievous gleam of cunning had returned to their eyes.

Turning, all three women looked to Icy, the only one in the cell still sitting resolutely atop her dinky 'throne.'

After taking her time to carefully weigh all her options in her head, Icy finally heaved herself laboriously off the offending chair, kicking it aside as she stood.

"Fine," she decreed icily. "Let's go." Pushing past her grinning sisters, she stepped into the swirling black vortex and out to freedom.

…

 _Back to Red Fountain as the Winx hurry in past the damaged and crumbling Red Fountain exterior._

The Winx filed into Red Fountain's weapons supply room, a small, circular room which had been made into a makeshift resting chamber for Helia while the specialists of Red Fountain waited on Saladin's magical healing spells to deem the corridor to their infirmary safe for passing.

"Wow, this place really has been roughed up," Bloom remarked to Sky as he and Brandon escorted the girls through the door.

"That's one way to put it," Sky replied, gesturing his arm over to where his Headmaster Saladin was already standing.

"Helia!" Flora cried as soon as she saw her ailing boyfriend lying motionless on the table. "Oh, Helia, are you alright?" she rushed to his side.

Behind her, the rest of the Winx and their headmistress Faragonda came to join her, coming to the bedside where Red Fountain's Headmaster Saladin leaned worriedly over his nephew's face. Crowding around gravely, they awaited for their Headmasters' diagnosis.

"Have you found anything out yet, Saladin?" Faragonda asked her colleague as she placed a gentle hand on the sick boy's forehead.

"Well, the good news is that there are no signs of physical injury, and no internal bleeding," Saladin informed her, pacing back and forth. "But he hasn't moved a muscle since he collapsed this morning."

Sky and Brandon shared a glance, silently agreeing that this was the closest to distraught that they had ever seen their former teacher.

"Well, why don't I have a look then," said Faragonda reassuringly, placing her hands of either side of Helia's head so she could get a concentrated reading on his aura.

The students backed up to give her some space.

" _Omi-visa-cura, omi-visa-cura,_ " Faragonda began to glow as she chanted her spell. Everyone in the room watched in silence, seeming to collectively be holding their breaths. Expectantly, they looked to Faragonda when she finished.

As Faragonda opened her eyes, her face was grave. "Just as I feared," she said. "This is the doing of an ancient dark magic, one that has not been seen around here for a very long time."

Flora piped up. "If it's dark magic, then we can fix it with our fairy dust, right?" she asked hopefully.

Faragonda shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Flora. While fairy dust may work on spells and enchantments cast using dark magic, it has very little effect against the workings of darkness itself."

The Winx gasped at that, but she continued thoughtfully. "Although this magic hasn't been seen for centuries, I wonder if there may be one way—"

"I'll do it," said Flora before Faragonda had even finished her sentence. Already, the others could see hope blossoming in her chest.

"Yes, we'll do anything to save Helia," Bloom seconded, stepping protectively to her friend's side.

"Absolutely," Layla agreed, giving her friend an affirmative squeeze.

"We'll go, too," volunteered Sky, stepping forward along with Brandon.

Faragonda shook her head. "You boys will be best served to stay here. You are needed here to help rebuild Red Fountain." The two specialists bowed their heads dutifully. "Yes, m'am."

"But you're all determined to go, then?" Faragonda asked, turning to the Winx. She searched each of their faces, seeking out their true intentions.

"Of course!" "Definitely." "We're all in this together!" Every one of them voiced their support for their friend, but it was the looks of pure determination etched into their faces that convinced her. Faragonda nodded, satisfied. "Alright, then," she said.

"This mission will require you to go back to Tir Nan Og."

…

Stumbling out the other side of Echidna's portal, the Trix took in their surroundings. Across the barren expanse of dirt and dust, a dark and menacing granite fortress rose from the ground.

"What is this place?" Stormy breathed, wide-eyed.

"Ladies," said Echidna. "Welcome to Callisto."


	4. Episode 3: The Forest of Light

_Red Fountain Theme as the Winx take off for their mission._

Whoosh! The Winx's aircraft took off from Red Fountain's last usable hangar, barely managing to navigate out of the rubble-strewn structure before taking to the skies. Down below, Alfea's wise headmistress stood with the Red specialists and their headmaster as she pensively watched her students go.

Next to her, Saladin let out a heavy sigh, and she turned in startlement to hear such a sound come from her once-formidable and daunting colleague, who, even in his old age, could be counted among the greatest wizards of his generation.

After all his encounters and hard-won battles with the dark arts that could have broken him, it was heartbreaking to see now that the gravity of his current ordeal had finally taken the fight out of him. Watching one of the most regal and ever-composed men she had ever known head back inside wordlessly to watch over his ailing nephew, she could have sworn that she saw him lean against his magical scepter extra heavily today, using it as if it were a walking cane to support the weight of the body he no longer had the strength to carry.

Turning to head in with him, Faragonda took one last look at the aircraft that was now disappearing into a far-speckled dot in the sky.

"Hurry, girls. I believe in you," she whispered.

…

 _Inside the aircraft…_

Fmmmmmmmmmm. Flora stared out the window of the Red Fountain hovercraft as the clouds whooshed by, absent-mindedly chewing on her lip. With her head propped up against the windowsill, she could feel the gentle buzzing of the engine vibrating against her skin and the cold pane of the glass pressing into her face. At the moment, however, there was one thing and one thing only on her mind: Helia.

 _Helia_. Her one and only love. From the moment his eyes had met hers that day at the Red Fountain, she had known that it would be him. That he would be her other half, and they would complete each other like honey and jam. And from the moment that she had told him she loved him and he had said it back…the entire timeline of their relationship flashed through her mind in an airbrushed blur of memories and emotions. And now, everything had changed so fast.

 _Oh Helia_ , she thought, her chest choking up again. There were so many things they had yet to do, so many things they were supposed to experience together. They had even planned to travel the magical dimension together!

 _No_. She clenched her fist. She couldn't bear to think about that. Tearfully raising her hand to her mouth, she turned back to the window and stared straight ahead.

…

Across the hovercraft, the other Winx were huddled behind Timmy, the only specialist Saladin had been able to spare with all the repairs going on at Red Fountain. Luckily, his technological expertise had more than made up for his lack of a co-pilot and crew. In their place, he had plugged in the latest update of Magix's best positioning device and enlisted his tech-savvy girlfriend to keep an eye on their route.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"It's coming up, Timmy," Tecna called to him, seeing the glowing blue heat dot indicate that they were nearing a dimensional portal. "And…now!"

"Got it!" Timmy confirmed, hitting the control lever at just the right moment to propel them into the wormhole.

"Nice work, Tecna!" he turned to give his girlfriend an affectionate thumbs-up.

"Yeah, Tecna!"

The other Winx clapped and nodded in appreciation of their friend's navigation savvy, but their tones were muted and their moods remained somber.

Now that they had successfully made the jump, they made their way back to the back of the airship and sat down in a loose circle.

"Guys, I'm worried about Flora," said Musa, the first one to bring it up. Leaning in and keeping her tone hushed, she glanced concernedly over to where their friend was curled up all alone.

Layla nodded. "Yeah, she hasn't talked or eaten since we left."

"And all she's been doing is staring out the window this whole time," observed Stella, making to go over to her. "You know what would help turn that frown upside down—"

"Stella," Bloom put a hand on Stella's shoulder to stop her. "I don't think we should try to force Flora to do talk if she doesn't want to. Everyone deals with things in their own way, and if this is Flora's, then we should just be there for her."

Seeing her sense, Stella relented.

"Hey, I'm sure she'll be better once this mission is completed," Musa chimed in, in an attempt to make her now-deflated looking blonde friend cheer up to her usual happy self. "Besides, we've got a whole entire mission to—"

Just then, Timmy cut her off. "Hold on tight ladies, we're going in for the landing," he said.

…

When the Winx disembarked, Queen Nebula was waiting to greet them with a group of her best fairy guards. As self-assured as always, she had since mellowed from when the Winx had last seen her (at war), and, despite sporting the same haircut and fairy transformation outfit as before, she had settled into the role of queen quite nicely.

"Winx! Layla," Nebula held out her arms as she welcomed them onto Earth Fairy land, giving an extra special nod to her once-comrade-in-arms against the wizards of the black circle.

"It's a pleasure to see you all again," she said. "Although I do wish it could have been under better circumstances," she added regretfully.

Then, turning to Flora, she got right down to business. "I understand you're looking for an anecdote to a dark magic to precede all dark magic, is that right?" she asked.

The Winx nodded. "We were told we could find it here." Tecna piped in.

"Well, you've come to the right place then," Nebula said.

"To reverse the magic done by the darkness to precede all darkness, you will need to retrieve the light to precede all light."

"Huh?" The Winx looked at each other with confused looks passing between their faces.

"What you're looking for is the forest of light," Nebula clarified. "One of the last corners of the magical dimension where such magic still exists."

She gestured to the purple-clad fairy guards standing at attention behind her, "I have arranged for a number of my personal guard to escort you to where you need to go. But once you're there, however, the rest is up to you."

Giving them another curt nod, she bowed and moved out of the way.

"Good luck, Winx," she said solemnly.

…

 _Meanwhile, on Callisto…_

The Trix filed into the cavern, following their guide, prison break rescuer, and obligatory "fast-friend" as she gave them a tour of their headquarters.

"Wow. This place is huge," Stormy said for probably the tenth time in the last hour, craning her neck to look around at the enormously high ceilings and dark, gothic décor that lined the walls of the dining room. It was just the way she liked it.

Echidna smiled, her reptilian green lips curling upwards into her signature smirk. Wordlessly, she retreated to a corner of the room and let them linger for a while, as even the usually cool and hard-to-impress Darcy was openly having her look around.

"I'm glad you like it," she finally said simply in reply, moving to lead them on to the next room.

At this, Icy crossed her arms across her chest. "Oh, cool it, Stormy," she mumbled.

…

 _Back on Tir Nan Og…_

The Winx and Nebula's fairy guard stopped flying when they reached a large clearing of open grass. As they went in for the landing, it quickly became apparent how their destination had gotten its name. What lay before them, stretched out like rows upon rows of fluorescent light orbs, was without a doubt the forest of light.

Upon nearing its cusp, several of the Winx and Nebula's fairy guard included, had to blink, squint, or otherwise shield their eyes from the pure white that shone out at them, lest they risk going blind on the spot.

Turning around to face the Winx, the head fairy guard stepped forward to speak.

"This is the farthest we can take you," she said with a curt nod, motioning for the rest of her squad to prepare for the flight back.

"Of course! Thank you so much for all of your help so far!" the Winx chorused.

The fairy nodded, making to leave with the rest of her crew before suddenly turning back. Catching a glimpse of her face, Flora realized that she was actually quite young, even possibly near her own age, although she didn't know quite how aging worked on Tir Nan Og.

With a quick squeeze to the shoulder, accompanied by a meaningful look, she was surprised when the girl leaned in to whisper to her.

"Flora," she said. "Remember the light."

…

 _Back at Red Fountain…._

Saladin hovered over his nephew's sickbed, resting his hands on his cane, but never once budging an inch from where he sat.

Every once in a while, one of his specialists, on the order of Alfea headmistress Faragonda, would come in to bring him some soup or some water and check in on how he was doing, but never once did he pay them more mind than an absent-mindedly wave or barely-there nod of acknowledgment.

In fact, over the course of the entire day, none of them had even seen him leave his side.

"Aww, man," Brandon poked his head around the corner of the room during his well-deserved lunch break.

"You think he's going to be okay?" he said in hushed tones to his best friend Sky.

"Well, we'll just have to trust our girls," Sky replied.

…

 _Back on Tir Nan Og…_

Flora took a deep breath and turned back to the Winx.

In her brief interaction with the head guard fairy of Queen Nebula's squad, her friends had already advanced ahead of her, heading straight from the luminous see of blinding light that shone out from the Forest of Light.

Seeing that their friend hadn't caught up to them yet, they turned to wait for her, looking at her inquisitively.

"What was that all about?" they asked, curious to know.

"I—she just wanted to tell me something," Flora replied, unsure even to herself why she had chosen not to disclose the full truth to her friends. For some reason, her last interaction with the head guard fairy had left her rattled, and she felt the overwhelming need to take the time to at least process things first.

"Well, ok, then. Let's head in now!" Stella said, her, Tecna, Musa, Bloom, and Layla already hovering in midair and poised to go.

"You ready Flor?"

They all turned to look at her again, their outlines framed by the brightness behind them, yet again, Flora was confronted by the same shaky feeling as the one she had had before.

"N—No!" She finally blurted out, shaking her head vigorously from side to side as she finally understood what it was.

"You've all already done so much for me," she said, thinking back to not only how the Winx had all volunteered without hesitation to come with her, but their years and years of friendship where they'd always had her back. Even with the guard fairy she hardly knew from earlier, her heart had swelled with gratitude for all the people who were there to support her in her life.

But…she shook her head. She had been getting the same, vaguely far-off feeling when they had been approaching the trees, but now that they were here, it was as if the entire forest was yelling out at her.

"I have to do this alone," she said to the Winx club, watching as their faces changed from confusion to taken-abackedness to finally understanding and acceptance.

"Uh—" Tecna had nearly raised her index finger, probably to point out the statistical improbability of a solo mission being successful.

"Flora!" Bloom had nearly exclaimined, looking like she wanted to rush back over and convince her otherwise.

"Umm…" For a moment there, it had even looked liked Stella had wanted rush over to her, tell her batshoot crazy she was being, and straight-up fight her.

But…none of that ended up happening, and if Flora had been able to see herself, she would have understood why.

Because in that moment, as the winds coalesced at just the right angles to blow her long whipping hair behind her into a swirl of caramel cream coffee, she looked completely and totally at peace.

Gone were the eyes of the sensitive artist, who so often hid behind her friends and was loathe to speak up for herself, though she so often did for others. Gone was the posture of the unsure girl, who they had seen thrown into a withdrawn, inner turmoil on the airship.

In her place, instead, was the _fairy_ Flora –calm, capable, and completely poised in times of crisis. Shoulders relaxed, eyes determined and steady, Flora had only ever looked so determined and confident in herself when she was employing her powers, listening to the voice of nature and using it to heal others.

Now, when she needed it the most, she had become her best self, ready to take on a challenge and save her beloved's life. Amidst the whipping of the wind and the illumination of the skies, she was the eye of the storm, and she wasn't ready to go down without a fight.

As if transfixed by her image, the other girls stopped mid-sentence and gathered around her.

"You've got this Flora!" they said, giving her a large group hug in solidarity.

When they parted, they made way for their transformed friend, like subjects parting for a royal sea. The determined look never leaving her face, Flora took her first steps into the Forest of Light, and was swallowed by the blinding white.


End file.
